4/22/2013

In general, the attitude of one petty god to another is best described as well-seasoned contempt. Treachery is commonplace. Many gods pass the eons constructing flawless architectural models of deception -- played out by armies of phantoms -- in which they are triumphant over some hated rival.

Human emotions and desires are the merest trifles in comparison to the sorrows and lusts experienced by the gods -- psychotic obsessions and rich tapestries of delirium that occupy monoliths of time -- only ending when their esoteric sufferings have fully transformed them and thereby usher in the next age of the world.

Petty gods covet power. The bones of their elders -- scattered bits and pieces of ancient gods long dead -- sometimes invisible to mortal eyes or entirely beyond their reach -- call to the petty gods with the promise of power. These pieces are collected and collated and analyzed. They are secreted away and put under the protection of cunning demonic agents who can alter the minds of intruders at will. The very idea that another godling might come to possess its sepulchral hoard is a source of much anxiety for the petty god, and much energy is spent preventing this from ever occurring.

My understanding of the notation (") used above -- an artifact of wargaming systems which represented actual inches on the game table -- is that a creature rated at 12" can move 12 yards outdoors or 12 feet in the dungeon per round. Does this differ from your reading? And how would you like to see movement rates expressed in PETTY GODS?

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A Simple Way to Resolve Pursuits

All parties involved in pursuit will roll a number of dice and then compare results to determine the outcome.

Determine number of "movement dice" -- Subtract 10 from movement rate to determine number of d6 to roll (eg. a standard movement rate of 12" would be 2d6 [12 - 10 = 2]).

Pursuer(s) rolls first. This result is the # to beat to evade attack/capture.

Pursuee(s) roll. If the result is above the Pursuer's roll, attack/capture has been evaded. If the result is below, then attack/capture is possible.

Pursuer may decide which Pursuee to attack if there is more than one low roll.

For movement rates below 10" -- These characters/creatures must hide rather than flee because their slow speed makes flight impractical.

Possible modifier(s) -- Negatives for running blind (eg. in a forest at night).

Example: Mung the Cleric and Joff the Fighter are fleeing through a forest from a trio of three-armed Hoons. Joff has the standard 12" movement rate, but Mung is encumbered by an excess of loot, equipment and armor so his rate is reduced to 11". Hoons have a 14" movement rate.

The DM elects to make one 4d6 roll for all three Hoons. Result: 15.

Joff rolls 2d6. Result: 5.

Mung rolls 1d6: Result: 6.

The Hoons easily catch up with Joff who -- judging from his low roll -- must have tripped over a root. Mung evades the monsters for the moment. The DM determines that two Hoons attack the fighter while the third continues to pursue the cleric. (Had the cleric's roll been higher than the Hoons initially, then the monsters would not have this option.)

Constructive/deconstructive input is welcome here. All you makers of gods should take note that a new bit of required information is needed for every entry. Or you can just leave it up to Gorgonmilk and Matt Schmeer to come up with something during the editing process. No sweat.

Upper stat block is LL:AEC and in some cases system neutral.
----------------------------------------Lower stat block is ACKS-specific info.

Note the distinction between Symbol and Talisman. Compare to the Fish representing Christ in the ancient world -- while crosses, beads and the bones of saints are examples of common and uncommon talismans of Christianity.
______________*: Chaos and Law in their purest forms are neither Good or Evil.**: Download Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition CompanionHERE.***: Download Adventure Conqueror King SystemHERE.

This stunted tree is found growing in some wet and lonely
borderland. Its branches are sickly white and mottled with a
blooming yellow fungus. The tree gives off an indescribable reek
that is especially pungent on the skins of its black, bladder-shaped
fruits. Only 2d6 of these fruits will ever be found hanging from the
tree's lower branches. They are quite heavy and take a pair of
human-sized hands to hold properly. The fruit's surface is greasy,
often crawling with small insects. A dull knife will reveal its
sweet and oily meat -- the juice of which contains a powerful
intoxicant.

Legend claims that the tree feeds on the rotting form of an old
goddess who died of despair. This goddess acquired knowledge of a
particularly potent and poisonous nature -- contaminated lore that
was ultimately her undoing. As her body decays, the tree takes
sustenance from her dark knowledge, of which its fruit are a kind of
repository.

Any mortal character who consumes the flesh of the fruit of the Tree
of Forsaken Lore has a 50% chance of becoming permanently Chaotic.
He/she must save vs spell to avoid total psychic deformity. Success
indicates that the character is particularly resilient to the
fruit's edifying juices. Failure indicates that the character will
revert to an atavistic form. (Roll 1d6 -- 1,2: medium-sized sickly primitive animal; 3,4: ambulatory fungus; 5,6: stationary fungus.) Affected
characters gain 1d6 INT and lose 1d6 CHA.

[Note: I'm not really sure how to portray the sort of transformation caused by eating this fruit. On the one hand, I see the body and mind of the character becoming deformed and in some way primitive. But this change occurs because of a particular expansion in intellect. So the primitive or degenerated appearance does not equate with stupidity.]

It is told that the Jale God and the Yellow King once gorged themselves on the black and viscous fruits of the Tree of Forsaken Lore until their bodies swelled and exploded in a shower of effervescent gore. Seven and three godlings emerged vacant-eyed and uncertain from the spattered finery of their forebears, like babes crawling from the red and burbling holes of dead mothers. Only slowly and after much wandering did they come to realize what had passed.

It was many eons before the Jale God ambled forth again from dust and shadow to resume his creaking seat in the House of Decayed Memory. He was a changed lord, given to weird fits. It was not long before his old servants abandoned him.

Tales of the fate of the Yellow King and His Heart are the stuff of children's stories. Most variants mention or allude to the legend of Naughty Jack, a poor fool who comes upon the Heart through some accident or minor bit of misfortune. Jack imagines the organ is some golden bauble, perhaps a scattering once found among the hoard of a wandering giant king. He takes it home to his homely wife, and the pair celebrate long into the night with many goblets of wine or honey-mead shared between them. It is then, while Jack and wife groan in the thickness of drunken sleep, that the Yellow King arrives and calls up to them like a cold wind from the woods behind their cottage.

"Where is it? Where is the King's heart?

Where is the crucible of my blood?"

And so on. Needless to say, Jack and wife come to a sad end. Whether the Yellow King finds where Naughty Jack has sealed away His Heart all depends on the version of the legend being recited.

4/11/2013

Ghosh is a largely unknown deity, though his name is often invoked. One calls upon old Ghosh to deliver little curses called "darnings" that often reflect backward in time upon the invoker -- though they rarely amount to anything more than a stubbed toe. Ghosh will apply his dooms to inanimate objects as readily as to living things.

If anybody has an extra copy -- e-mail me (see above address) and let's work out a book trade.

ANYWAY

One of the ingenious elements of Lindsay's novel is the invention of colors that the reader has never seen.

"Just as blue is delicate and mysterious, yellow clear and unsubtle, and red sanguine and passionate, so he felt ulfire to be wild and painful [and] jale [to be] dreamlike, feverish, and voluptuous."

(See also Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space")

These analogies have a concise sort of poetry that I think we could replicate and apply to other sorts of concepts:

Alignments -- those that cannot be fully comprehended by player characters

Energies -- fire-like elements that behave unlike fire

Alternatives to Dreaming/Dream Experience

Fey concepts that do not translate well into Mortal tongues

Example:

choon [chewn. fey concept]

As hatred conjures a violent burning in the heart, as love a gentle gloaming, so choon is like a sizzling grease fire of the soul. It is an emotion that elicits bizarre behavior in fey beings that may appear to mortals as a kind of schizophrenia. Choon is the grinding of the soul's foundations, like two great stones being struck together to create sparks. Many fey experience love and choon as a mental tincture of equal parts -- adoring, loathing and being at one with everything simultaneously.

If you've already submitted a godling or three to PG, I humbly request that you submit another entry (a god, divine artifact, minion(s), or a particular place of power) linking back to your original entry.

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BTW A lot of you have sent me mail asking whether or not your godlet or item or whatother has been accepted into the book. Unless I sent you a mail requesting changes/adjustments, then your work will be in PG. I will hopefully have time to respond to more specific questions soon.

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I screwed up and asked Eleanor Ferron to do a drawing for Nearly Forgotten Behzd, overlooking that Luigi Castellani had already done one for his entry a long time ago. Fortunately I have need of this second Behzd illo, so it all works out. It's worth noting that Eleanor had not seen Luigi's drawing when she drew her take.

4/09/2013

Thinking of an optional set of rules dealing with this topic. Want to avoid point-system mechanics and use something simpler -- maybe an HD-based chart indicating (a) abilities that are permanently in effect and (b) abilities that can be used a certain number of times per day.

For several eons there was a season of unicorns among the Lords of Chaos -- a kind of in-joke or competition wherein random mortal creatures were selected for unicorn-hood. That is, the perfect metamorphosis from, say, the form of a rabbit to that of a full-blown, sometimes anatomically incorrect mono-horned beast. They called this game Unicorning.

Each unicorn was absurd in its own way, with absurdity being the Chaos Lords' sole aesthetic, so that a wild variety of the beasts began to accumulate in remote forests and in certain secluded glens.

Afterwards the Lords killed them all. All save the most beautiful -- a nine-legged hermaphroditic horse-thing the Jale God called Atanuwe -- an old word meaning something akin to "primal nonsense."

He bred Atanuwe with several human women in his service, and the witch-mothers gave birth to seventeen mule-things with the faces of human men and women. These creatures are called atacorns. They are known to dwell near rivers and underground streams. If witches are sometimes characterized as malicious, the atacorns are regarded as experts in the area of cruelty. They are known in local folklore as child-thieves, cheats, liars, poisoners, slave-traders, cannibals, and occasional usurpers. Several stolen lands make up their hodge-podge empire, wherein Atanuwe is worshiped like a god and eats bread stuffed with the seasoned organs of human virgins.

4/08/2013

Overlapping Deity Portfolios [ODP]: When two or more gods share patronage of a specific area, thing or quality.

Officially, PETTY GODS is pro-ODP. Gods who bear similarities to each other will be natural rivals and be a good source of conflict in the campaign. Think of the complicated relationship between Sauron and Saruman.

A perfect example is the case of Grugzaret (created by David Wellington) and Thuf (created by David Haraldson). Both godlets were created independently and without foreknowledge of each other's existence.

"Grugzaret is a god of subterranean darkness, and he despises those who pollute his perfect gloom by striking lights where they are not wanted. Though it is commonly held to be a pointless superstition, many adventurers speak a scrap of nonsense rhyme as they light their torches or lanterns: ‘Ware damp/Snuffer fly/burn true/where shadows lie. This prayer is rarely heeded, though, for the Snuffer has no desire to be placated, only to extinguish lights wherever he encounters them."

"Thuf, Lord of Unexplained Winds in Underground Chambers and Lights Extinguished at Inconvenient Moments, Protector of the Underworld’s Secrets, He Who is Lost but Would Not Be Found."

"Grugzaret" by Ryan Browning

Thuf and Grugzaret could be allies, but more likely the patrons of rival underworld cults. Perhaps they are manifestations of a greater god at war within itself. They could be worshiped by very different groups. Whereas Thuf seems like a god of lore and of great interest to magic-users, Grugzaret is less sophisticated and more primal -- a boogeyman worshiped by the little folks who dwell beneath the surface.

Are certain dice called on to do specific sorts of tasks at the game table? Twenty-siders admittedly serve a lot of functions in most D&D-like games, but what if we broke down each of the dice types according to the task(s) and prop(s) to which they are most associated?

Jim of Hereticwerks has provided us with an illustration of Hlinjassa (see below). First person to comment here gets to tell us who (or what) Hlinjassa is in PETTY GODS. I need full stats and a description for this mysterious deity. The only thing I know for certain is that Hlinjassa has some provenance over dreams...

4/05/2013

Gorgonmilk is headed up to Cornell University today to be part of Bob "Cyclopeatron" Reed's new OD&D campaign. I'll let ya know how it goes. Bringing my best loaded dice. Might leave the flannel at home -- the weather is spectacular today.

I'll be playing the part of Sculdge, a disgraced apprentice of the Wizard Parthoon. He was caught having relations with one of his master's favorite artificial concubines and suddenly found himself homeless with naught but his spell folio and a few coins in his pocket...

*I'm expecting a slew of more entries before the May 31st deadline, but I may issue a challenge or two soon. (Challenges are like conceptual sketches that writers can flesh out and make their own thing.)

Been out and about, soaking up the Sun, feeding the chickens and hitting the B&N to pick up Jonathan Roberts' Westeros map set (it's sweet, btw). I've a ton of e-mails to get to, but rest assured if you're waiting on a response I'll get to it tonight.

4/03/2013

Ezra is the author of The Shadow Out of Providence -- a "Lovecraftical" text that features the art of Timothy Hutchings and old school favorite Erol Otus.

Kevin is a freelance editor and writer covering the game industry and, like Ezra, happens to be a big fan of the Dee and Dee.

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Writer John Till has submitted more than several Tekumelian artifacts and is sending me a Prof Barker/Meso-American inspired deity. If you happen to be a Tekumel fanatic and want to submit something along these lines, please drop me a line at the e-mail found at the top of this blog.

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Clovis Cithog -- expert on all things Barsoomian -- has sent me a complete pantheon based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars books. I'm looking for a really competent illustrator to depict this crew. They will be featured in their own appendix in PETTY GODS. If you have the stuff, drop me a line at the e-mail found at the top of this blog.

When a petty godling gets a hankering, what does he/she eat? This important question will be addressed in an appendix to PETTY GODS. Please forward all your ideas (a title and a paragraph or two is all that's really required) to my Chief Culinary Editor, Matt Schmeer:

mwschmeer AT gmail DOT com

Matt runs Rended Press and has been a huge help in organizing PG, providing cool content and getting the word out.

I'm happy to inform you that Timothy Hutchings -- artist extraordinaire and creator of the world's largest wargaming table (see pic below!) -- has joined the PETTY GODS crew. Welcome, Tim!

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Meanwhile, work on PETTY GODS continues. I'm getting in great pieces of art and some excellent Item and Minion entries. Many of you have contacted me about submitting new deities. I may need some, so keep watching Gorgonmilk for new requests and challenges.

"Maybe the knights would be only vaguely knights and only very loosely connected by order, just weird wanderers, blessed or cursed with bizarre experiences behind and ahead of them. Maybe they'd be of many different knightly orders, or demi-orders, fractured and in dispute over trivial subjects and not quite sure who was allied with who any more. A little 'knights will clash'. Maybe they're not all chaotic and don't necessarily loot and pillage, but everything is in some way related back to the petty gods - maybe some individuals act as champions or messengers, or hunt others, or are trying to become gods themselves. A little like the factionalism and rivalries in GW's Inquisition, but much more old school, working in a weirder quest-themed space, with the doom built from the ground up through details. The key would be less alignment than web of loyalties, and contributors could include a line in the profile for their individual's current bonds. Maybe every allegiance would be a mix of the same keywords in a different order, like that scene in The Life of Brian on different movements."

4/01/2013

James Ward included a section in TSR's DEITIES & DEMI-GODS devoted to Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. These weren't the only non-deities in the book, but they were the only ungodly group to have their own section.

What if PETTY GODS had its own cadre of knights under the auspices of a charismatic, more-than-slightly crazy leader? Not a rehash of the Arthurian guys, mind you. Instead these Knights of the Hexagram would be aligned with Chaos, sacking towns and villages for the simple pleasure of it.

What I'm looking for:

Send me your Sir [Insert Name Here] of [Insert Epithet Here] statted out like our deity entries. He should be in possession of a magical weapon or accouterments that give him an edge over your average mook. He could even be blessed or cursed in some very specific way. Consider all Knights of the Hexagram to be 6th to 8th level fighters.

Gotta killer concept for our Anti-Arthur? (Maybe based on Crowley?) Lay it on me:

Many of you have suggested names of cult writers, actors, artists and creators that I should contact regarding PETTY GODS. For the sake of keeping all this information together, please comment with your suggestions here.

Also, if you can personally bring in a high-profile contributor to the PETTY GODS project, I'll send you a Gorgonmilk-endorsed and printed VANCIAN SUPPLEMENT booklet as my way of saying thanks.

There's plenty of room at the back of PETTY GODS for classified-style ads and whatnot. I think I speak for most of us when I say I'd like to see some short -- quarter-page to half-page size -- cartoons as well. Go back and look at old issues of The Dragon for inspiration -- or even Gygax's DUNGEON MASTERS GUIDE with its scattering of single-panel cartoons. We're looking for cartoons that make light of petty godlings in some way.

Here it is -- the long-believed lost version of PETTY GODS designed by Peter Gifford and edited by James Maliszewski of Grognardia! To keep things straight, we're officially dubbing this "OPG" -- Original PETTY GODS -- while the ongoing book project I'm editing will hence be known as "XPG" -- Expanded PETTY GODS.

Looks like I'll be sending Tavis Allison a 1st Printing Lancer Conan. He has used his arcane powers to lure the ultimate Autarch -- a guy that takes up a helluva lot of space on my bookshelf...

GENE WOLFE!

Yep, that's right. The author of The Shadow of the Torturer, The Fifth Head of Cerberus, and The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories is aboard the PETTY GODS boat, sailing the Seas of Fate with Michael Moorcock, Charles R. Saunders and James "I wrote the book on gods" Ward.